Telling a Story to the Greek Gods
by funni neko
Summary: Percy Jackson and his cousins Thaila Grace and Nico Di Angelo have been sent back into the past to read The 5 Percy Jackson and the Olympian books. What will the gods think and will this change their minds about the oath and their children
1. Prologue

**Telling a Story To the Greek Gods**

**Prologue**

It was your usual day at Mount Olympics. Athena and Posieden were fighting. Hermes and Apollo was pranking Zeus. Hera and Aphrodite where talking about the latest fashions. Ares was talking with Artemis about how was she doing with Hunt. Demeter was going on about the joy of cereal. While Dionysus was complaining about stupid ungrateful demigods.

When a package suddenly appeared on the floor causing the group to look over at Hermes who simply shrugged his shoulders and went to pick up the package.

"Its from the future." Hermes said as he was going to read the not out loud.

_Dear Gods of the past this awesome Gods Apollo and Hermes here sending you books about our favorite demigod in the future Percy Jackson. We think this will change many things if you read these books (Hera also insisted on boring family time also) Make sure Hades is here this involves him to we are sending 3 demidogs from our time to you guys. _

Not long after 3 screams came from above as they were crashing down to the ground but the girl flipped over landing onto her feet as the other one with black hair and clothes disappeared and reappeared on the ground as the other fell flat on his face. The two started laughing at the guy who fell straight on his face. The gods were shocked that they were disrespect to the dead.

"Kelp-head get up already." Thalia said giggling softly. "Urgh... that hurt." Percy said sitting up rubbing his ache head. "Perce why didn't you just make some wind?' Nico said as he finally stopped laughing. "Who are guys." Zeus thundered. "Um you guys know why we are here. We're the demigods?" Percy asked nonchalantly. "Sorry about my cousin. I am Thalia, death breath over there is Nico and the one who sassed you is Percy." Thalia said. "Um let call Hades." Hera said trying to be the peace keeper.

Once Hades came up to Mount Olympians, they filled him what was happening. "You called me hear to here "read". Hades said. Looking at His brother annoyed. "Yes, now wants you to read." Zeus asked. "I will Zeus." Nico said as he grab the book

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******A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this story  
**


	2. Chapter 1:I Accidentally Vaporize

**Telling a Story To the Greek Gods**

**Chapter 1:I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE ****MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER**

"Percy, how accidentally vaporize someone?" Nico asked his cousin. Percy shrugged his shoulders. "He is Percy does he need a reason." Thaila joked. Causing Nico to laugh and Percy to growl at the playfully.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"They never do." Athena said. As the three half bloods moved around shuffling their feet.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now.**

"We all must pray." Thalia said. Putting her hands together. "What for?" Apollo asked. "Percy giving advice i t the end of the world." Thaila replied. As Percy swat at her hitting her in the arm. "Watch it Kelp-head."Thaila said rubbbing her arm. Percy rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and apologized to Thaila.

**Believe what-ever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"That not very good advice." Hera said blankly.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. **

"Check"**  
**

**It's scary. **

"Check."

**Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"Check, once again." Dionysus said. Smiling at the many ways those brats could die. As Demi-gods all glare at him as well as all Gods and Goddess that had children.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being ****able to believe that none of this ever happened.**  
**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading ****immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a mat-ter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"You didn't warn me."Nico said.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

"Hi Percy my name is Hermes." Hermes said.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

"Did he just call himself a troubled kid?"Aphrodite asked looking at her family. "Yes he did." Ares said. Everyone looked him shocked forgetting that he was the the whole time.

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yes."Thaila and Nico said in unison. Percy scowled but didn't say anything.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"Even you agree." Nico said. Growling at Percy who put an innocent smile onto his face.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last ****May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two ****teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek ****Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, www.p****and Roman stuff.**

"That sounds like fun."Athena said. "It sounds like torture." Posieden said. Ignoring Athena's glare.

**I know—it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were. ****But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes. ****Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy ****beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but ****he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman ****armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"Its Chiron isn't it." Hermes said. Looking over at Percy who nodded his head slightly.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble. ****Boy, was I wrong. ****See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the ****Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school ****bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. **

"What were you aiming at anyway?"Zeus asked. "I don't know I think it was my math teacher." Percy said. As if trying to recall what happened that day.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a ****behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and ****our class took an unplanned swim. **

This caused everyone to burst out laughing as Percy glared at them.

**And the time before that... Well, you get the idea. ****This trip, I was determined to be good.****All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting ****my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Ewww." The goddess said in disgust. Even the gods looked a little green.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held ****back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his ****chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life**  
**because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs.**

**He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but**** don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Stupid Satyr Blowing his cover."Dionysus said. Shaking his head he might have to change his training methods.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she ****knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation.**

"What did you do Percy?"Thalia shrugged his Shoulders. "I don't remember." Percy said.

**The headmaster had ****threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly ****entertaining happened on this trip.**  
**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled. ****Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"No he doesn't." Thaila said.

** He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. ****"That's it." I started to get up, **

"Aw, come on Satyr why did you stop him."Ares whined.**  
**

**but Grover pulled me back to my seat. "You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens." ****Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension ****would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. ****He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and ****glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. ****It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years. ****He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone col-umn with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling ****us how it was a grave marker, astele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides.**

**I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of inter-esting, but everybody around me ****was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give ****me the evil eye.**

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even ****though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. **

"Is that..." Hades stared looking over at Percy who nodded his head.

**She had ****come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"Nervous breakdown my..." Percy started but Thaila hit him aside the head. "We have a minor present." Thaila reminded him. Looking over at Nico. "Hey I'm older than you guys put together." Nico growled glaring at his cousins.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point ****her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school ****detention for a month. ****One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I ****didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Goatboy he really needs to practice in hiding his cover." Thaila said.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. ****Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and**  
**said, "Will you shut up ?" ****It came out louder than I meant it to. ****The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"****My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir." ****Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture ****represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating ****his kids, right?"**

"Why does it always have to be that one."Hades growled

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..." ****"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"**

"God, Boy are you trying to insult us." Zeus thundered glaring at Percy.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked. ****"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate ****them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus,**

"Mother always favored you."Posieden hissed. Glaring at his youngest Brother

**and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus ****grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**** "Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me. ****"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"Did you just Summarize the biggest war in history by saying we had a big fight and we one." Athena said Shocked. Percy rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

**Some snickers from the group. ****Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going ****to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'" ****"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this**  
**matter in real life?"**

"Busted."Thaila said.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

"Aw man I thinking like goat boy now." Thalia whined.

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair. ****At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything ****wrong. He had radar ears. ****I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir." ****"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. **

**"Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos ****a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being ****immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods ****defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the ****darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us ****back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like**  
**doo-fuses. ****Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson." ****I knew that was coming. ****I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand ****years old and had seen everything. ****"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me. ****"About the Titans?" ****"About real life. And how your studies apply to it." ****"Oh." ****"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally impor-tant. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept ****only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard. ****I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and ****shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every ****Greek and Roman per-son who had everlived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

**But ****Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and ****attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as ****good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell ****them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like ****he'd been at this girl's funeral. ****He told me to go outside and eat my lunch. T****he class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth ****Avenue. ****Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city.**

**I figured ****maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been ****weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I ****wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in. ****Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers.**

**Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds ****wasn't seeing a thing. ****Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did ****that, everybody wouldn't know we were fromthat school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't ****make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.****"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius." ****Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep ****philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

Everyone laughed at this. "Goatboy sure has poor timing." Thaila said in between giggles.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it. ****I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a ****little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a ****taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too.**

"Your mother sounds like a wonderful person."Hera said. Smiling at Percy. "She is." The three demigods said in unison. "You guys meet here before?' Apollo asked. Thaila and Nico nodded their heads and smiled

**She'd send me ****right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I ****was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me. ****Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a ****paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized ****cafe table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly ****friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in ****Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had ****spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos. ****I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your ****temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, ****screaming, "Percy pushed me!" ****Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us. ****Some of the kids were whispering: **

**"Did you see—"**  
**"—the water—"**  
**"—like it grabbed her—"**

"You Broke the Oath." Zeus Roared Glaring at Posieden. Zeus got up and started towards Percy. Posieden stepped in between his brother and His son. "Yes I have Now you will sit down cause you broke the oath also cause a couple of months ago a little girl around the ages of 8 stepped into my domain with your scent." Posieden said Glaring at Zeus.

"Is this True Zeus." Hera said Glaring. At her good for cheating scumbag of a husband. Zeus lowered his gaze before replying to Hera saying yes. Hera stormed over to him and slapped him on the face before she stormed away.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. ****As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the ****museum gift shop, etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd ****done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"****"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"Never guess your punishments." Apollo said. Looking over at Percy. "Trust me I know that now." Percy said.

**That wasn't the right thing to say. ****"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said. ****"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her." ****I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to ****death. ****She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled. ****"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—" ****"You—will—stay—here." ****Grover looked at me desperately. ****"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying." ****"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me."Now ." ****Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. ****She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast? I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've ****missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind ****it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure. ****I went after Mrs. Dodds. ****Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and M****r. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in ****his novel.**

Percy murmured something like. "Yeah he almost got me killed for that."

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of ****the entrance hall. ****Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. ****But apparently that wasn't the plan. ****I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and ****Roman section. ****Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was ****making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**  
**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. ****Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it... **

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said. ****I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am." ****She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?" ****The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. ****She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"She not a monster of course she not going to hurt you." Thaila said Sarcastically.

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building. ****"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you ****out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."****I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of ****my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever ****reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make ****me read the book.**

"Why didn't you read it a very good book." Athena asked. Glaring at Percy. "Umm, I did read um... my girlfriend made me." Percy said. As Thaila and Nico started to laugh.

**"Well?" she demanded. ****"Ma'am, I don't..." ****"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, ****turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled ****hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"You sent a furry after my son." Poiseden yelled lunging after Hades who flinched slightly as Poiseden made his way over to Hades. Nico Stood infront of Hades pointing his sword at Poiseden. " Don't get any closer."Nico growled. "Yes dad I'm alright so calm down." Percy said. Poiseden glared at nico and Hades before returnon to his throne.

Hsdes looked at Nico shocked that he protected him Nico walked back over to the book and once again began to read.

**Then things got even stranger. ****Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway ****of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand. ****"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air. ****Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.****With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the a****ir, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, ****which he always used on tournament day.**

"Riptide." Percy said. Thinking of all the times he used the sword to save his life.  
**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. ****My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"Man can you get any,ore pathetic." Ares said. Glaring at Percy. "You be quiet."Percy said glaring back at him.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!" ****And she flew straight at me. ****Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**  
**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss! ****Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, ****leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two ****glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone. ****There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. ****Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me. ****My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or ****something. ****Had I imagined the whole thing? ****I went back outside. ****It had started to rain. ****Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing ****there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I ****hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

**I said, "Who?" ****"Our teacher. Duh!" ****I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. ****She just rolled her eyes and turned away. ****I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was. ****He said, "Who?" ****But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"He a terrible satyr." Dionysus said. "No he not you will see." Percy said.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious." ****Thunder boomed overhead. ****I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, read-ing his book, as if he'd never moved. ****I went over to him. ****He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the ****future, Mr. Jackson." ****I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?" ****He stared at me blankly. "Who?" ****"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher." ****He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As ****far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Chiron can lie Grover need to learn a thing or two from him." Nico said. "That the end of the chapter." Thaila asked. Nico nodded his head yes. "Who wants to read next?" Nico asked. "I will." Athena said. "Wait I need to go Find Hera." Zeus said going to go find his wife. As they all sat there waiting for him and Hera to return.

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******A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this story. Sorry for the long wait.  
**


	3. Chapter 2: Socks

**Telling a Story To the Greek Gods**

**Ch.2:Socks  
**

"Hestia, are you here?" Zeus called out to his wife. "What do you want Zeus."Hestia snapped at her husband. "I'm sorry for betraying you again." Zeus told her. "If you didn't mean it then why did you do it." Hestia yelled at Zeus. "I have no answer to your question but please come back to hear the rest of the story." Zeus pleaded.

"Fine." Hestia said as she walked back into the throne room and Zeus trailing after her. Once they sat down

**Chapter 2: Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death**

"What up with the title Seaweed brain." Thaila asked, Looking over at her cousin. Percy looked over at her and smiled and didn't say anything.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

"When was your life was ever normal?" Nico asked, looking over at Percy. "Good question." Percy replied, smiling at his cousin as he put

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

"Percy, how can fall for that?" Thaila asked. "I don't know but Grover is not the best liar." Percy said.

**Almost. But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

"Of course something happened if you weren't paying attention.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood.**

**One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room.**

"Why are you so angry at him for?" Aphrodite asked Zeus. "How am I supposed to know." Zeus replied.

**A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy.**

"You guys are acting like a couple of children." Hera said, glaring at Zeus and Posieden.

**One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

"Why are you getting better grades." Athena asked, Glaring at Percy. "Athena, stop staring your going to make me catch on fire."Percy said.

** I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped.**

**I called him an old sot.**

Nico and Thaila started bursting out laughing while the gods had a amused smiles on there faces.**  
**

** I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

"Momma's boy." Ares spat. "Proud to be." Percy replied.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side,**

Posieden sighed contently as the mention of Sally.

**even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

"What are you talking about Paul doesn't gabble." Nico said to Percy. "No, this my other stepfather."Percy told them.

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well. As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

"Why didn't you study for your other classes?" Athena growled. Percy ignore her and she continued to read.

**I hadn't forgotten what had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.**

"How dare you through a book." Athena yelled trying to get Percy but Apollo and Hermes hold her back.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"I certainly know the difference now." Percy said,as Nico put his hand on his shoulder comfortingly.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

"I hate it when he does that at camps setting his expectations to high." Nico said.**  
**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.  
**"That the spirit continue to try hard and still fail." Apollo said.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

"The joys of eavesdropping." Hermes said. "Yeah but Percy not any good at it." Nico before Percy splashed him with water. Thaila snickered at Nico downfall.

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"**

"There giving away everything an they didn't even notice you." Thaila said and Percy nodded his head**  
**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more." "But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline— "**

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he saw her... ."**

"Damn straight I saw that old hag"Percy growled. Nico and Thaila started laughing at Percy.

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

"Oh Grover, he still blames himself for that time doesn't he." Thalia said, looking down at her hands. "Its ok Thaila, he over it now he knows that the sacrifice you made wasn't in vain."Nico told her. "You right Death breathe." Thaila said wiping away her tears from the corners of her eyes. The gods were all thinking the same thing what did this little girl have to give up.

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"You sure are clumsy Percy." Nico said. "Shut up." Percy said

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"Scardy Cat." Ares mumbled, as Posiden shot he a glare making him fall silent.

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

"You can be stealthy when you want to be." Thaila commented. "It's not my fault that Monster can sense me easily," Percy grumbled

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

"What going to happen on the day of solstice?" Hermes asked, looking down at the three demigods. Thaila and Nico shrugged there shoulders and looked over a Percy. "You will find out later." Percy said.

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me." The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever. Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm. Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

"When is Perce, Ready for anything." Nico joked, Percy glared at his cousin and knocked his chair down when Nico was not looking.

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression,**

"I hate when he does that." Percy said. "Do what?" Posieden asked. "Satyrs can read people emotions on peoples faces." Dionysus commented. Everyone looked over at him shocked never once did he comment about any of the demigod or anyone from the camp in a dignified manor.

** and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back.**

**They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"When am I not in Danger?" Percy asked, sighing as his cousin laughed at him.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"That sounds like torture." Posieden murmured. "It was."Percy said, groaning remember about having to sit down for that long.

** my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say.**

**"This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

"There he goes with another one of his cryptic sayings." Thaila Groaned. Nico and Percy nodded their heads in agreement. "Those saying do get annoying after a while." Dionysus commented

**My eyes stung. Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month.**

"The Caribbean, is a perfect place to visit in the summer." Posieden commented.

**They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"Well that harsh." Posieden murmured, as Percy gave him a sympathetic smile. "Sorry I didn't know about who you guys were until a little later on." Percy told him, as he scratched the back of his head looking sorry.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?" Grover nearly jumped out of his seat.**

"Way to blow your cover, he is not smooth at all when hiding his identity." Nico yelled as he gripped his hair and started to pull on it slightly. "Oh come on Nico, you can't act like that you weren't nervous once it was your first time on your own."Percy said, Nico blushed in embarrassment a mumbled something like "You stay in a hotel for seventy years and come back outside you'll be the same way."

** "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

"That what we would like to know as well." Hera said, looking over at Percy who smiled softly at the goddess.

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ..."**

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"He sure is." Thaila commented, Nico nodded his head in agreement.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like: Grover Underwood Keeper Half-Blood Hill Long Island, New York (800) 009-0009 "What's Half—"**

"Your not suppose to say thing out loud like that Percy." Nico told him. "I know I learned that the hard way." Percy murmured to himself.

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy. "Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"Percy that was harsh."Thaila yelled at Percy. "I felt bad about it you know." Percy yelped, as Thaila stealthy zapped Percy so none of the Gods would notice. Percy glared at her.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you." ****I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway. After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there.**

**On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree,**

"Please tell me those aren't what I think they are?" Nico said, looking over at Percy. Who looked at him sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head."Y-yyou never told us that you encountered them." Nico yelled, looking at Percy shocked. "Calm down Nico, I'm fine." Percy told him. As the Gods and goddess where confused about what just happened.**  
**

** knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses. The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

"The fates." Zeus murmured as everyone caught these and their eyes widen and turned to look over at Percy shocked.**  
**

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

"Of course they are looking at him Goat boy." Thaila commented

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"How can you find a time to joke about this right now?" Herme asked, Percy shrugged his shoulder and loooked over back at Athena signaling her to continue to read.

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

Everyone gasped and paled as the all looked over at Percy. Who looked back at them and didn't say a word.

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"Please go inside." Posieden begged, none seemed to notice beside the demigods.

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. **

"Oh my Hades." Posieden gasped as he buried his head in his hands. "Why does everyone curse upon me?" Hades grumbled as he turned away from the group and began to pout.

"How are you alive?" Hestia asked. "It was not my life line they cut." Percy replied.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to passengers cheered."Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?" He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

"The fates." Percy told him.

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"No, there much, much worse." Aphrodite commented.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said,**

**"Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost -older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

"You don't know how wrong you are." Apollo said.

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

"He will never get over that will he?" Thaila said, rubbing her forehead."Unfortunately until you came back he is always like this." Percy told her.

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

"Yes it means your life is soon to come to an end." Zeus commented.

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"That is the end of the chapter." Athena said. "Who wants to read next?" Percy asked. "I will." Posieden said.**  
**

* * *

******A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this story. Sorry for the long wait. Did you guys like the more comments were the enough or do you guys want more from the future people? Also I'm might be adding either Grover or Annabeth to the next chapter. Tell me who do you want to join by reviewing.  
**


	4. Chapter 3: Lost pants?

**Telling a Story To the Greek Gods**

**Ch.3: Wait did you just say he lost his pants?  
**

"That is the end of the chapter." Athena said. "Who wants to read next?" Percy asked. "I will." Posieden said.**  
**

**Chapter 3:GROVER UNEXPECTEDLY LOSES HIS PANTS**

"Perce?" Nico asked, Percy looked over at Nico to see what he wanted.**  
**

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"Percy."The cousin groaned as they looked over at Percy who looked at the sheepishly. "He was freaking me out OK." Percy Retorted.**  
**

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man,****muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"**

"Yeah your right Percy he would creep me out as well."

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up,so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off ****the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. **

**Instead of waiting, I ****got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown. ****"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**  
**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

Aphrodite nearly squealed in delight as she felt the love waves that came off of Posieden at the mention of Percy's mother.**  
**

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world,which just proves my theory that the ****best people have the rottenest luck.**

The cousins looked at Percy in wonder what had happened to the Aunt Sally.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she ****was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high ****school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. **

"This woman sounds like a very bright person why would she fall for Fish-Stick here." Athena murmured to herself. "It because the ladies love the underwater sea tour." Posieden said as his brothers gave him envious looks.

**Then her uncle ****got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left ****with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

"This woman deserves happiness." Aphrodite said silently to herself.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile.**

"I must have visited you when your mother was either asleep or at work." Posieden told his son and Percy smiled at him.

**My ****mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. ****Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back. ****Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"She didn't lie to the sea-spawn." Athena said. "If only she was a virgin maybe she would have fit as a great hunter." Artemis informed. "Will this story have some action." Ares said ruining the moment.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She ****never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid. **

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his ****true colors as a world-class jerk.**

**When I was young, I nick-named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's ****the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

The goddess turned green at this and even the gods looked like they were sick.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, **

"How did he treat her Percy? Posieden asked looking over at his son. Percy did not say one word.

**the way ****he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe ****was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans ****were strewn all over the carpet.**

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

"No welcome back!" Thalia yelled outraged at this man.

**That was it. No, Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months? **

"If he did say this what would happen?" Hermes asked. "I would have died from shock.**  
**

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three ****hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know ****why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on ****cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. **

**Always beer.**

"Ugh an Alcholic." Dionysus said in disgusted, "But your the wine dude though how are you surprised." Nico commented

**Whenever I was home, he ****expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom,****he would punch my lights out.**

Everyone Froze turning there gazes over to Percy who would not meet there eyes.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him. ****He raised a greasy eyebrow. ****Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've ****covered up everything else.**

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in ****change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?" ****Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe,"** **he said. "The kid just got here."**

"At least this guys showing some sympathy." Aphrodite said.

**"Am I right ? " Gabe repeated. ****Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

"Men," Artemis snorted as she glared at them.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you ****lose." ****"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's ****"study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the ****closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his ****nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home. ****Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit ****lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made ****me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like ****someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing** **long, horrible talons.**

"Hahaha, you called your own mom a monster." Nico laughed as Percy punched his shoulder playfully.

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"****She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in ****the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, ****but I never think of her as old.**

**When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, ****none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or ****Gabe.**

"Of course a mother would never say a unkind word to there child." Hera said but Thalia snorted at the comment.

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!" ****Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, ****licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag** **of "free samples," ****the way she always did when I came home.**

"Why couldn't are mom be like that." Hades said as he looked at his siblings.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand ****through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything ****about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing ****all right?**

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see ****her.**

"Why can't you boys ever tell them how your truly feel." Artemis murmured to herself but Apollo heard her. "Because if we did we would be called weak." Apollo informed her.

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?" ****I gritted my teeth. ****My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire,not to some jerk ****like Gabe.**

"How about a god instead" Posieden suggested. Percy looked over at him and smiled.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too ****down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd ****done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked ****Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. **

**I started ****choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad. ****Until that trip to the museum ... ****"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my con-science, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did ****something scare you?" ****"No, Mom."**

"Don't lie to your mother!" Hera hissed at Percy who just glared back at her. "I didn't want to lie but at the time I thought it sounds stupid."

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I** **thought it would sound stupid.**

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.** **"I have a surprise for you," she said.**

**"We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

"I remembered that place i go there every summer." Poseidon commented

**"Three nights—same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed." ****I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said**  
**there wasn't enough money. ****Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

"That man is going to have hell in my realm." Hades said as he looked over at the book.

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice ****to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

"He better let you go." Nico growled.

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step-father is just worried about money. That's all.** **Besides," she added, ****"Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for ****the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

**Gabe softened a bit.**

**"So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Aphrodite yelled in distress. "A woman can't live without clothes." The male gods cringed out her outburst.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid ****apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

"He doesn't need to apologize for your gambling habit." Dionysus commented as he glared at the book.

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"Do it! Do it!" Most of the wall gods screeched.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad. ****Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought? ****"I'm sorry," I muttered.**

**"I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go ****back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement. ****"Yeah, whatever," he decided. ****He went back to his game.**

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've ****forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

"Can she see through the Mist?" Athena asked Poseidon as he glanced over at him. "Yeah she can."

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ****ride as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air. ****But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken.**

**She ruffled my hair and went to ****make Gabe his seven-layer dip. ****An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He ****kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking and more important, his '78 Camaro for the ****whole weekend.**

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"Like he be driving he is twelve." Nico snorted.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve.**

"Haha your quoting Percy, death breathe." Thaila said.

**But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped ****on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me. ****Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain.**

**As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of ****warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe.**

"Thanks dad." Percy said as he smiled up at him.

**The ****screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair-case as if ****he'd been shot from a cannon. **

Everyone laughed at this. Percy looked at his father thankful and he simply nodded his head.

**Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I ****didn't stay long enough to find out.**

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it. ****Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island.**

**It was a little pastel box with ****faded cur-tains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the ****cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

"How is the water cold for you Perce." Nico pondered. "It really was not but my mom said it was too cold so told me to get out of the water." Nico said.

**I loved the place.**

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly ****said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

Posieden smiled at this he loved Montauk beach.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing ****from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We ****walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater ****taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"What with all the blue food?" Zues asked, as he looked at Percy. While Hermes and Apollo started to salivate at the food.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a ****really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue ****birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home**  
**blue candy from the shop.**

**This along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling ****herself Mrs. Ugliano was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious ****streak, like me.**

"That is not an rebellious streak." Thaila murmured to Nico who nodded his head in agreement.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about ****when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. **

"All the gods and Goddess glared at Zues for this.

**She told me about the books she ****wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop. ****Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to ****Montauk my father.**

**Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always ****did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."****Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag.**

"Now that she said something the Sea-spawn actually looks like you." Athena said as she looked over at Posieden.

**"I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so ****proud."**

"I'm proud." Posieden told his son as he gave him a smile."

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? ****A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a ****D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This ****cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were ****born."**''

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm ****glow. A smile.**

"I always visit my children at least once." Posieden told Percy.

**I had al****ways a****ssumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must ****be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me ...**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not ****having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire. ****"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?" **

"Percy!" His cousin and the Goddess yelled at him as he held up his hand in surrender.

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out. ****My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I have to, ****honey. For your own good. I have to send you away." ****Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"Of course your not normal you stupid brat." Dionysus said.

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy ****Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever ****happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers ****threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under ****his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

**Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a ****nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found ****me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler ****hands.**

Everyone looked over at Posieden in wonder. "I just wanted to make sure he was ok." Posieden defended.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move. ****I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, ****about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't ****make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want ****that.**

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But ****there's only one other option, Percy the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't ****stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

"Camp Halfblood" Nico and Thalia chimmed at there home.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me ****born talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever ****mentioned it before?**

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you ****to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she ****would start to cry. ****That night I had a vivid dream.**

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying ****to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its ****huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, ****and a monstrous voice chuck-led somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

"Hades, what are you planning?" Zeus asked his elder brother as he looked over at him who shugged his shoulders. "How am I supposed to know that the future me." Hades said.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. ****I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I ****screamed, No! ****I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was ****no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the ****dunes like artillery. ****With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

"Of course when these to idiots fight nothing can stop them. " Hera said glaring at Zues and Posieden who looked at her innocently.

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean ****seemed to have for-gotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound ****that made my hair stand on end. ****Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice someone yelling, pounding on ****our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock. ****Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't ****exactly Grover. ****"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?" ****My mother looked at me in terror not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell ****me?" ****I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing."O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I ****was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night.**

**Because ****Grover didn't have his pants on—and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ... ****My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now !"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at ****me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning. ****She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go ! " ****Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly.**

**He was trotting, shaking his shaggy ****hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I ****understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves. **

"Who's next?" Posieden asked as he glanced around the room. "I'll read Thaila said as she reached over to grab the book from her uncle. That is when another flash of light appeared and Five figures appeared.

* * *

******A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this story. Sorry for the long wait. Did you guys like the more comments were the enough or do you guys want more from the future people? Also I'm might be adding either Grover or Annabeth to the next chapter. Tell me who do you want to join by reviewing.  
**

******I did loses these files so I'm doing it all over please stay paient.**


	5. Chapter 4: Bull Fight

**Telling a Story to the Greek Gods**

**Chapter 4: Bull Fight**

"Ow!" Annabeth and Grover said as they sat up looking to see they were on Mt. Olympus, she scanned the room to find that Pecry and the others were here as well and let out a heavy sigh before asking "What did you guys do this time?"

"We honestly did nothing wrong this time Annabeth, we swear." Nico and Percy said as she looked at them with uncertainty. "Daddy!" A high pitch voice squealed as a little girl ran towards Hades. Hades eyes widen slightly as he saw his daughter Bianca before him and saw his lovely Maria behind her. Hades quickly shifted down to mortal size and picked up his daughter.

"Hello Bianca." Hades said as she kissed his daughter forhead, the other Gods watch in suprise at Hades exchange, Hades then looked up at Maria and his eyes showed fondness. Aphroditre squealed in delight as she felt a huge love wave hit her that was rolling off of Hades.

"Brother, how dare you break the oath!" Zues yelled furious.

"I didn't Break the Oath. Maria had Bianca and was pregnant even before we had made that oath!" Hades yelled back standing infront of Both Bianca and Pregnant Maria.

"You will not harm that childs mother Zues." Hera growled at her husband who looked back at her suprised.

"Zues, then this must be Mt. Olympus." A woman said in a soft Voice. "Sally." Posiden said as he saw her and quickly made his way over to him. "Poseidon, what are we doing here?" Sally asked him as she saw her son smiling at her. "Hey mom." Percy said walking over to her.

"Nico, why do you not go over there and talk to her?" Thaila whisphered as Nico watched his father interact with his sister and his mother. "I do want to talk to her but how can I?" Nico asked with loads of uncertainty. Thaila sighed as she understood where he was trying to say but still it did not feel right.

Grover and Annabeth walked over to Nico and Thaila while the others interacted with each other filling them in of what had happen so far. Thaila opened the book and began to read.

**"Chapter 4:MY MOTHER TEACHES ME BULLFIGHTING" **Thalia read as here eye brows furrowed together in concern.

"That can't be good," said Artemis

"No, it might be ok," said Apollo, he turned to look at Poseidon, "Does you know how the bull fight,"

"No I don't know how to bull fight." Sally told Apollo if they didnot believe her then the worried look on Poseidon's face would.

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind-shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

"I like how you drive." Ares said as he grinned.

**E****very time there was a flash of lightning, **

Posieden shot his brother an hateful glare which his brother did not acknowledge.

**I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane,**

"Well, that's not new." Nico muttered.

Percy shouted. "Hey I am perfectly sane. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be here."

Nico rolled his eyes but kept silent.

**or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. **

"Sure Percy, because those exist." Thalia said sarcastically. As Annabeth hit his arm playfully.

Hermes and Apollo started to laugh as they stared at there cousin fondly. "We both knew would like your son, Uncle P." Apollo said as he was holding his side from laughing so hard.

**But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo lanolin, like from ****wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

"I don't smell like a petting zoo." Grover argued looking at the other for support but when no one defended him he looked down at his hooves sadly. "G-man its not a big deal, I was just surprised."

** All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"**

"Nice ice breaker Perce."

"Your head is full of kelp you know that right?"

Percy rolled his eyes at his cousins and gave them a smile.

**Grover's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us.**

"What's following them?" Maria asked curiously looking at Percy and Grover who said nothing.

Percy sighed sadly. Only if he wasn't that stupid he could have saved her.

He was afraid to see how his father would react. He knew that his dad would blame Hades but he wouldn't let that happen if it was anybody's fault it would be his.

** "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never** **met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

**"Watching me?"**

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

Percy gave him a genuine smile and said "That you are Grover that you are." IGRover smiled back at him in return.

**"Urn ...what are you, exactly?"**

"Subtle Percy really subtle." Nico stated.

Deciding to play along Percy exclaimed. "I know right! I was trying sooo hard to make it subtle."

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"**

"Grover won't like that Peter." Dionysus informed him as Percy meerily smiled at him.

"_Never _call a satyr a donkey! It will get you killed." Grover yelled seriously.

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"**

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

**"Goat!" he cried.**

**"What?"**

**"I'm a goat from the waist down."**

"But he said it didn't matter," said Nico.

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

"Oh no, I'm thinking like Percy!" Nico screamed in mock horror.

**"Blaa-ha-ha!There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"**

**"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"**

**"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

"Of course, you idiot." Athena murmured rolled her eyes but Sally and Posieden heard her and glared at her

"You would not just won't let it go" Thalia said shaking her head.

"I thought I was going insane!" Percy retorted as he glared at his cousin

**"Of course."**

**"Then why—"**

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be ****perfectly ****obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think ****the Kindly One was a hallucination. ****But it was no good. You started to ****realize who you are."**

"Nothing much," said Apollo, "Just that you started to realize you're a demigod, but not much."

Artemis just rolled her eyes then slapped her brother befoe looking at Thaila to continue reading.

**"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?" ****The weird ****bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever ****was**  
**chasin****g us was still on our ****trail.**

Percy put his head in his hands and looked down as Grover and his mother put comforting hands onto his shoulder. All of the gods were confused on what was going on. Poseidon shot Thalia and Nico a look that said "_What happened?" _All the cousins could do was shrug their shoulders and mouth back "_No clue."_

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough ****time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after ****me?"**

"Your Uncles." Apollo said, looking at Hades and Zeus.

"Not just them, there are few couple Titans, several gods, and loads of monster seeking revenge." Thaila informed them as everyone stared at Percy in wonder.

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey****comment. "Just the Lord of the ****Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest ****minions."**

"Hey!' Hades and Nico yelled. Hades loooked at Nico surprised but Nico refused to look at them.

**"Grover!"**

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, ****please?"**

"Yes, please drive faster!" Poseidon begged.

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was ****happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I ****had no ****imagination. I could never dream up something this weird. ****My mom made a hard ****left.**

**We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses ****and ****wooded hills and PICK YOUR ****OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

"Almost there! You better not die now Percy." Posieden sighed in relief.

**"Where are we going?" I ****asked.**

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she ****was trying for my sake not to be ****scared. "The place your father wanted to ****send you."**

"They're almost there." Nico sighed

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

"Why do you have to make everything harder, on your mother" Hera said.

**"Please, dear," my ****mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in ****danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

"You know," said Hermes, "That does sound kind of stupid when he says it like that."

"That's Percy," said Annabeth, "Saying the most stupidest things in the most blunt way at the wrong time."

**"Those weren't old ladies," ****Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact ****they ****appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when ****someone's about to die."**

"GROVER!" Everyone yelled.

"SORRY!" Grover yelled.

"Satyrs, always ruining things." Dionysus said as he ate some grapes.

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

**"No I didn't. I said ****'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in me. "**

**"I meant you, like 'someone.'**

**"Not you, you. "**

"What I'm lost!" Hades said as he looked over at his brother who were also confused.

**"Boys!" my mom said.****She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a ****figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark ****flutter-ing shape now lost behind us in ****the storm.**

Poseidon looked as if he was about to have a heart attack. Not knowing how to calm his father Percy he walked over to him and sat beside him offering moral support.

**"What was that?" I asked.**

**"We're almost there," my mother ****said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

**I didn't ****know where there was, but I found myself lean-ing forward in the car, ****anticipating, wanting us to ****arrive.**

**Outside, nothing but rain and ****darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of ****Long ****Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the ****thing with pointed ****teeth and leath-ery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed ****shock. She really hadn't been ****human. ****She'd meant to kill me.**

"No," said Thaila, "She just meant to harm you severely before taking you to the Lord of the Dead."

"Hey!" said Hades, "If I wanted to talk to someone for who knows what, I'd have them brought to me, have a talk with them, and then harm them, if necessary."

"Nonsense!" said Demeter, "You'd harm them even if wasn't necessary!"

"Thaila, read before these two lunatics get in an even more heated argument." Hestia told her.

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and ****the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about ****that, the hair ****rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, ****and our car ****exploded. ****I remember feeling weightless, like I was being ****crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

"Zues!" Poseiden yelled at his brother who ignored him.

**I peeled my ****forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

**"Percy!" my mom ****shouted.**  
**"I'm okay... ." ****I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead.**

"Well that's obvious." Nico said.

Thalia looked at her kelp head of a cousin, then proceed to hit him on the arm. "Stop poking me, What are you doing?" Percy said swipping at his cousin hand. "Checking if you are alive." Thaila jocked as Percy glared at her playfully.

**The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. ****Our driver's-side ****doors were wedged in the mud. ****The roof had cracked open like an ****eggshell and rain ****was pouring in.**

**Lightning.**

**That was the only ****explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road.**

Ares leaned forward _"This stupid book was finally getting good."_ he thought as he.

**Next to me in the ****backseat was a big motionless ****lump. "Grover!"**

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his ****mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! ****Even if you are half barnyard ****animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

"Thanks Perce." Grover said smiling at Percy. "No problem G-man."

**Then he groaned. ****"Food," and I knew there was hope.**

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." ****Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the ****mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure ****lumbering toward us on the ****shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a ****dark ****silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be ****holding a blanket over his head. His top ****half was bulky and fuzzy. His ****upraised hands made it look like ****he had horns.**

Athena glanced at Percy in realization.

"Is it the Minotaur?" she asked. Percy meerily nodded his head.

**I swallowed hard. "Who is—"**

**"Percy," my mother said, ****deadly serious."Get out of the car." ****My mother threw herself against the ****driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. ****Stuck too.**

Poseidon tensed.

**I ****looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the ****edges were ****sizzling and smoking.**

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my ****mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that ****big ****tree?"**

"Its me!" Thaila said happily. Nico and Percy smiled at there cousin as the Gods and there mother shared confused glances.

**"What?" ****Another flash of lightning, and through the ****smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, ****White House ****Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

**"That's the ****property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse ****down in the ****valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until ****you reach the door."**

**"Mom, ****you're coming too." ****Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at ****the ocean.**

Hestia looked at him. He was so brave and loyal. He was different and once again he had managed to surprise her.

"She cannot go, young hero. I am truly sorry." Percy looked at magic goddess sadly and nodded. He knew, but he didn't want to disrespect.

Hearing his thoughts her respect for this boy no this man grew even more.

**"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry ****Grover."**

"You should have left me behind." Grover says letting out a sad sigh. Percy looked over at his bestfriend a smiled and shook his head before saying, "I would never leave my friends behind."

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

**The ****man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, ****snorting noises. As he ****got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a ****blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty ****hands—were swing-ing at ****his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was ****too ****big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like ****horns ...**

Poseidon gasped in realization.

"You fought the Minotaur?!" he asked.

Percy nodded and everyone else stared at him in awe.

**"He doesn't want us ," my mother told me. "He wants you. ****Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

**"But..."**

**"We don't have ****time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then—mad at my mother,**

"How dare you get mad at your mother." Hera began a rant but Zues looked at his wife at quieted her down and signaled his daughter to continue reading

**at Grover the ****goat,**

Grover smiled at the nickname knowing he could not truelly ever be mad at Percy.

**at the thing with horns that was lumbering ****toward us slowly and ****deliberately like, like a bull. ****I climbed across Grover and pushed the door ope****n into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

"Such a sweet son you have their Poseidon." Hestia said "Er thank you Hestia." Posieden told them.

**"I told You-"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover." ****I didn't wait ****for her answer. I scrambled outside, drag-ging Grover from the car. He was ****surprisingly ****light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't ****come to my aid. ****Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and ****started stumbling uphill through wet ****waist-high grass.**

**Glancing back, I ****got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms ****and legs ****like something from the cover ofMuscle Man magazine—bulging biceps ****and triceps and a bunch of other ****'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under ****vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except under-wear—I ****mean, bright white ****Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of ****his ****body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button ****and got thicker as it reached his ****shoulders.**

**His neck was a mass of ****muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long ****as ****my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and ****horns—enormous ****black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from a****n electric sharpener.**

"You fought a Minotaur?" Ares questioned Percy nodded his head. "Your not that bad yourself."

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in ****one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he ****couldn't be real.**

**I ****blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"**

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said.**

"You are very smart, Ms. Jackson." Athena told Sally. "Thank you, Athena." Sally replied giving her a smile.

**"I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

**"But he's the ****Min—"**

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

**The ****pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least. ****I glanced ****behind me again. ****The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the ****windows—or not looking, exactly. More like ****snuffling, nuz-zling. I wasn't ****sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

**"Food?"****Grover moaned.**

"I still say you should have left me." Grover groaned as he pushed his head into the palms of his head. Percy meerily laughed and put a hand on his shoulder comfortily.

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see ****us?"**

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But ****he'll figure out where we are soon ****enough."**

**As if on cue, the bull-man ****bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the ****chassis ****creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it ****down the road. It slammed into the ****wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of ****sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas ****tank ****exploded.**

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.**

"Oops." Nico and Thaila said letting out a small laugh

**Oops.**

**"Percy," my ****mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump****out of the ****way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once ****he's charging. Do you understand?"**

"Very good plan" Artemis commented.

**"How do you know all this?"**

**"I've ****been worried about an attack for a long time. I shou ld have expected this. I ****was selfish, keeping you ****near me."**

**"Keeping me near you? ****But—"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping ****uphill. ****He'd smelled us. ****The pine tree was only a few more yards, but t****he hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't ****getting any ****lighter. ****The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of ****us. ****My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! ****Separate! Remember what ****I said."**

Poseidon, Annabeth, and Grover paled at this.

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left,****turned, ****and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He ****reeked like ****rotten meat. ****He lowered his head and charged, those ****razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

**The fear in my stomach****made me want to bolt,**

"Wimp." Ares muttered.

**but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this ****thing.**

**So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the ****side. ****The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with ****frustration and turned, but not toward ****me this time, toward my mother, who ****was setting Grover down in the grass.**

"NO!" Poseidon moaned.

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. D****own the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, ****and the ****lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile ****away. We'd never ****make it.**

"He is pessimistic" Nico commented. "So is his father." Hades informed him as Zues and Hades laughed at there brother.

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He ****kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly ****downhill, back toward ****the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

**"Run, Percy!" she t****old me. "I can't go any farther. Run!" ****But I just stood there, frozen in ****fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me ****to ****do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by ****the neck as she tried ****to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking ****and pummeling the air.**

**"Mom!"**

"No..." Poseiden mumbled as he put his head in the palm of his hand. Percy moved over to his dad and put a shoulder on him comfortly. Sally smiled but did not say a word.

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out****one last word: "Go!"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists ****around my mother's neck, and she dissolved ****before my eyes, melting into ****light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. ****A ****blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.**

**"No!"**

**Anger replaced ****my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd ****gotten ****when Mrs. Dodds grew talons. ****The bull-man bore down on Grover, who ****lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling ****my best ****friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too. ****I c****ouldn't allow that.**

**I stripped off my red rain jacket. ****"Hey!" I ****screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! ****Ground beef!"**

Some of the gods chuckled queitly not wanting to upset Poseidon.

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty ****fists.**

**I had an idea**

Thalia looked at Percy seriously and then announced to the gods "He is doomed!" Percy rolled his eyes and playfully shoved his cousin.

**a stupid idea, **

"Those are the best type of ideas that you could ever give Kelp head." Annabeth said as she smiled fondly at him.

**but better than no idea at all. I put my ****back to the big pine tree and waved ****my red jacket in front of the bull-man, ****thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment. ****But it didn't happen ****like that.**

"Things never go according to plan when it comes to you son." Poseidon said after he stopped sobbing.

"Father it rarely does go the way I plan but grateful when it does." Percy replied.

Poseidon shook his head," You are going to be the end of me Percy."

The son of Poseidon smiled his big goofy smiles. In which Annabeth felt her heart flutter ever so lightly. Aphrodite Squealed at the love which came from both Annabeth and Percy.

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever ****way I tried to dodge. ****Time slowed down.**

**My legs tensed. I ****couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's ****head, ****using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his ****neck.**

"Wow, I'm impressed, there finally is some violence" said Ares.

Artemis nodded, _"if only he was a girl." _she thought

**How did I do that? I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond ****later, the monster's head slammed ****into the tree and the impact nearly knocked ****my teeth out.**

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

"Well you're not as slow as I thought." Nico and Thalia said together.

The looked at each and immediately turned away.

_Awkward….._

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

**"Food!" Grover moaned.**

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might.**

Ares nodded his head moving to the edge of his seat excitedly.

**The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!**

Many of the gods and goddess jaws dropped in suprise.

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

"Ouch! That's got to hurt." Hermes winced.

Artemis turned to his brother and shouted "No shit."

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

"Impressive" Ares said an the other gods nodded in aggreement.

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, **

**but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

**The monster was gone.**

"Finally." Everyone breathed in relief.

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish.**

Poseidon looked pained.

**I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm-house. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.**

"As loyal as ever." Annabeth said, and both Posieden and Sally smiled.

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.**

"It probably one of my daughters." Aphrodite said

** They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

Thalia's and Nico eyebrows rised. To them this was valuable information.

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

"Sea Spawn! You better stay away from my daughter!" Athena yelled glaring at Percy who sheepishly looked away from his mother-in-law. "So who wants to reads next?" Thaila asked. "I want to." Grover said as Thaila passed him a book. "Why don't we take a small break." Maria said as she looked down at her now sleeping daughter.

"Your right we shall continue the story tommrow." Zues said as the gods shrunk down to mortal size and began to give them a tour of where they would be staying at Mt. Olympus.

* * *

******A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this story. Sorry for the long wait. Did you guys like the more comments were the enough or do you guys want more from the future people? Please Review  
**

******Thank you to those who did review**

****** Guest *me*: Did you enjoy**

******AmandaDaughterOfHades:Thank you**

******Malcom: Sorry I wil try to fix that**

******Happy-go-lucky Writer:thank you.**

******BeautifulLotus: Sorry for the long wait**

******Maddie: Thank you for reviewing**


	6. Chapter 5: Horsey

**Telling a Story to the Greek Gods**

**Chapter 5: Horsey!**

"These are your rooms." Posiden said as he lead his son and Sally to the door with a trident on the door. "Thanks dad." Percy said as he his mother, Grover and the other demi-gods followed him into the room.

"Annabeth, where are you going?" Athena asked shocked as she stared at her daughter.

"I just need to talk to Percy for a minute Mother then I will head to bed." Annabeth told her before entering the room.

"Lady Artemis would it be alright if I stayed in your courtiers?" Thaila asked bowing to her lady. Artemis rose an eyebrow at her but nodded her head.

Nico stared at his mother longingly. Wishing to rush over into her arm. Nico let out a sad sigh before following after his cousin.

Once the door was shut Annabeth turned to glare at Percy. "Okay what did you do?"

"Why is it always me!" Percy said in outrage as his cousin laughed much to his displeasure.

"Because it always have something to do with you that's why Percy." Annabeth reasoned.

"I don't know just all of a sudden me, Thaila, and Nico were transfered here and now were reading books of our future." Percy told her.

Annabeth gave him a stern look before letting out a heavy sigh. "Fine we will go along for this for now come on you guys." Annabeth said as she, Thaila, Nico and Grover got up and left.

Annabeth went to her mother's room. Thaila headed to Artemis room. While Nico and Grover headed to Hermes room.

That morning Thaila came in the room with her sticking up everywhere as she tried to find the kitchen. She finally found it after ten minutes of wandering. She rubbed her eyes that were filled with sleep as she grabbed a box of Reeces Puffs and poured her a bowl.

"Good morning Thaila." Zues said startling his daughter causing her to throw a knife in his direction. The gods looked at her surprised.

"Oh My gosh I'm so sorry Dad." Thaila said worriedly.

"Its fine." Zues said pulling the knife from his cup.

"Morning." Maria said as she carried her sleeping daughter in her arms.

"Morning Maria." Hades and Thaila greeted instantly.

Next to come in was Sally, Percy and Annabeth. Sally was looking refreshed as she began to make breakfast.

"Am I late." Grover said as he saw almost everyone in the kitchen.

"No were waiting for one that sleeps like the living dead." Thaila said as she finished her ceral. There was a loud thump as someone ran into the wall.

"Fucking wall." Nico grumbled as he came into the room. Maria looked at him worriedly and walked over to him.

"Are you alright?" Maria asked him leaning close to him.

Nico flushed red in embarrassment as he saw everyone notice him run into the wall. "Yeah I'm fine." He replied.

"Thats good." Maria said giving him a smile.

Once everyone ate Breakfast and Bianca woke up they headed back to the throne room to continue the story.

**"I Play Pinochle With a Horse"** Grover read.

Thalia and Nico smirked.

_Ohh…..Percy._

Percy had the common sense to look bashful at that as he tried to ignore the laughter that was coming from the gods.

**I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me.**

"That always happen…..doesn't it?" Nico questioned

"No, not always there was that time…..yea it always happens" Percy confessed.

**The rest wanted food.**

Nico coughed and Thalia snorted.

"That was weird even for you, kelp head."

"You have really weird dreams, you know that Percy?"

"…thanks Hermes.."

**I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. **

"Mmmhm pudding…" Artemis looked alarmed at Apollo and certainly hoped his insanity wasn't contagious.

**The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.**

"Awwwww that's so sweet." Cooed Aphrodite. Nico and Thalia were laughing at the blush that was creeping up Percy. Hermes and Ares were not cooing but they were making fun of Percy. Athena was seething in her throne in anger at the thought of her favorite daughter anywhere near the spawn.

**When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"**

Zeus looked interested.

"What will happen at the summer solstice?" He asked.

"Oh nothing much, just the usual." Percy told the king of the gods.

Athena and Artemis raised and eyebrow, _nothing much this hero was totally insane._

**I managed to croak, "What?"**

**She looked around, as if afraid someone would over hear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"**

**"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't..."**

"Annabeth you need to realize Percy is pretty much useless when he first wakes up." Thalia started to smirk. "Actually he is pretty much useless all the time." Percy was just grumbling about evil cousins.

**Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.**

"Well that's one way of shutting him up."Thalia agreed with Nico. Nico was looking at Annabeth because she was so totally awesome.

**The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.**

"Aww you miss her already." Aphrodite sniffed. "You kids are so cute." Athena couldn't decide who she wanted to strangle more Aphrodite or Percy.

**A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes- at least a dozen of them- on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.**

Hera smiled at the thought of Argus.

**When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. **

"Strawberries, "Demeter sighed.

The other gods rolled their eyes but they were thankful it was not cereal.

**There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest.**

Poseidon's eyebrow shot up into the air.

He looked at Percy confused.

**My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.**

**On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.**

**My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

"Wuss."

"Ares?"

"Yes Uncle?"

"Shut the Hades up before I send you to take a bath in the River Styx."

"Yes Uncle."

**"Careful," a familiar voice said.**

**Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week.**

Maria smiled sweetly, "That's a real friend." She told Percy.

"Yeah he is." Percy said as he looked over at his best friend

**Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.**

"Goat boy." Grinned Thaila and Annabeth.

**So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And...**

"I'm sorry son. She's gone." Whispered Poseidon.

Hades said nothing but glance over at his nephew.

**"You saved my life," Grover said. "I... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."**

**Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.**

**Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.**

"Sadly no" grumbled Percy. No one understood what he was saying though.

**"The Minotaur," I said.**

"Names have power boy." Percy nodded his head to show Athena he was listening.

**"Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea-"**

"No one ever listens to the satyr." Hermes spoke.

**"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."**

**Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"**

**"My mom. Is she really ..."**

The atmosphere turned darker, but not as dark as it was before. Sally pulled her son into a comforting hug.

**He looked down.**

Poseidon looked almost as terrible as when they found out it was the Minotaur was after his pride and joy and love of his life.

**I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

Thalia smiled at the mention of her tree.

**My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

Poseidon nodded his head and was caught up in all his memories of Sally. Aphrodite could feel the waves of love coming of Poseidon and she couldn't help but cry at his heart breaking. Sally blushed as she gave her son a kiss.

"Awww." Aphordite Sqeauled.

**"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm- I'm the worst satyr in the world."**

"Yes you are satyr."

"DAD."The other Gods were in shock that Zeus would tolerate being yelled at by a demi-god.

Percy, Nico and Thalia rolled their eyes. _"Grover will never learn." _They thought.

"When we go back I'm beating the enchiladas out of you for thinking like that." Thaila told Grover causing him to flinch slightly

"Umm, Thals I don't think that'll help." Annabeth told her but she was ignored.

**He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.**

**"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.**

"Aww is goat boy throwing a tantrum." Nico said laughing.

"Nico, be quiet lets not remind you of your own tantrums." Annabeth said causing Nico to fall silent.

**Thunder rolled across the clear sky.**

**As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it.**

**Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head.**

"Please don't" Grover was looking very nervous because of the look the Nico was sending him.

**But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.**

When Athena heard the bit about the yellow light she couldn't help but think. _Hmmm that doesn't sound like death. That sounds like she was taken. _She looked over at her daughter but she did not meet her gaze.

**I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe?**

"Never,"Poseidon looked up and had a look of pure fury on his face. "You will come live with me before that would happen." He glared at the rest of the Gods as if daring them to tell him otherwise.

"I actually agree with you brother," Hades said surprising everyone in the room. "I'm not completely heartless."Hades retorted as Maria gave him a kind smile as Bianca bounced in her lap.

Even though Percy knew how this would turn out he couldn't help but smile at the fact that his dad would let him live with him. The other demi-gods couldn't help but feel jealous of Percy. They doubted their parents would do something like that for them.

**No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. **

"Yeah right punk. Only an moron would believe you were 17."

**I'd do something.**

**Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid- poor goat, satyr, whatever- looked as if he expected to be hit.**

"I probably was." Mumbled Grover.

"Not going to happen Grover." The demi-gods said in unison.

**I said, "It wasn't your fault."**

**"Yes, it was. I was supposed to **_**protect **_**you."**

**"Did my mother ask you to protect me?"**

"You're such a good friend Percy."

"Thank you Lady Hestia."

**"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was."**

**"But why ..." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.**

**"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.**

"Wuss."

"Shut up Ares."

**I recoiled at the taste,**

"Why?"Questioned Thaila."Nectar is awesome."

**because I was expecting apple juice.**

"Ah well that makes sense then." Annabeth snickered at this.

**It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies.**

"Was it good?"Questioned Maria while Apollo and Hermes started to drool.

**And not just any cookies- my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting.**

Apollo and Hermes drooled.

"You're a Gods you twits you can get your own damn cookies." Artemis growled at the two.

"Oh yeah, I knew that. Thanks sis."Artemis glared at her brother and her hand twitched to her bow.

**Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.**

"Awwww." Cooed all the girls. Sally leaned over to pull her son in a hug.

**Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.**

**"Was it good?" Grover asked.**

"Of course." The demi-gods chimed in unison.

**I nodded.**

**"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.**

**"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."**

"No! That's not what I meant. I was just... wondering."

**His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just... wondered."**

"Its good to see you don't change much Grover." Laughed Annabeth.

**"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Home made."**

Nico leaned into Thalia and whispered "Those are so good." Thalia smiled and nodded with her cousin.

**He sighed. "And how do you feel?"**

**"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."**

"Is that good?"Asked Demeter. Percy smiled and nodded.

**"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff"**

**"What do you mean?"**

**He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."**

"Good I am finally in the story. Perry here is going to describe me it better fit how wonderful I am."Percy paled by the end of Mr. D's rant, he honestly didn't remember what he thought of Mr. D when he first met him.

**The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.**

**My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.**

"Good, keep it close you did earn it." Said Ares and Hephaestus at the same time. They eyed each other with a severe dislike.

**As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.**

**We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing.**

**The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. **

**Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.**

All the demi-gods smiled and thought about how much they loved camp. It was a home to them all.

**Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.**

Annabeth wouldn't admit it to anyone but she was excited to see how Percy described her.

**The man facing me was small, but porky. **

Mr. D was glaring at Percy, and he was trying to look anywhere but at the very angry god. Apollo, Hermes, and Ares were starting to laugh at the description.

**He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels- what do you call them, hubbubs?**

Mr. D lifted his eyebrow in confusion at that. What in the blazes was a hubbubs? The three Gods who were laughing from before were joined by Poseidon, Hephaestus, and Hades.

**No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.**

At that all the gods were roaring with laughter while Percy was slowly backing away from a livid Mr. D.

"PERRY LARKSON" MR. D yelled glaring at the demi-god that hide behind Nico who was laughing.

**He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my step father.**

"That I could Paddy."Mr. D snarled.

**"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper,**

"Just a camper Grover?" She was looking angry about being called just another camper. Percy put his hand on Annabeth's shoulder to keep her from pulling out her knife.

**but she's been here longer than just about anybody.**

"Well that's better I guess." Huffed Annabeth.

**And you already know Chiron..." He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.**

**First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.**

**"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.**

**The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers **_**B**_**.**

**"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."**

**He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."**

"Dionysus, you are supposed to be pleasant." Growled Zeus.

"Er yes father I always.."He trailed off when he received the glare from his father.

"You know that actually was very friendly for Mr. D."Mentioned Percy

**"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, **_**if **_**there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.**

The campers had to stifle there laughter as Mr. D gave them a hard glare.

**"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.**

**She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."**

"I will have to tell Chiron that I don't want my daughter near fish face here."Athena said glaring at Percy.

"Mother its fine really." Annabeth reasoned nervously.

"Fine." Growled Athena.

**Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."**

**She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. **

Annabeth started to smile at that but she was careful to not let her mother see her smiling. Aphrodite noticed it however and smiled to herself.

**With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. **

Her smile slid off her face."And what does that mean Percy?" With the angry look on her face and on Athena's face he was tongue tied. He had a feeling he knew what was going to be said next but he wasn't sure if that should reassure him or not. _Athena's so going to kill me by the end of this book._

**They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty,**

Annabeth smiled again when she found out Percy thought she had pretty eyes. Poseidon took a good look at his son and noticed he was blushing. _Hmmm I will have to watch him better from now on._ He was cut short of his thoughts though when Athena hissed "Jackson…."

**but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.**

"I/she was." Responded Annabeth and his cousins.

**She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, **_**You killed a minotaur! **_**or **_**Wow, you're so awesome! **_**or something like that.**

"You honestly thought that?" Thalia laughed."Wow Perce, just wow."

"I highly doubt I would ever think something like that." Athena nodded with her daughter.

**Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."**

His cousin and some of the gods started to laugh at what Annabeth really said and what Percy thought. Even Percy was able to chuckle at his thoughts and what his future girlfriend really said.

**Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.**

"Aww you miss her already." Cooed Thaila and Nico but they shut up when Percy blasted Thaila with water and Annabeth threw her knife at Nico and got his foot. When they saw what they both did they smiled and blushed a little bit.

**"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"**

**"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex-Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."**

**"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D ... does that stand for something?"**

Dionysus scowled at Percy until Percy started to shift uncomfortably in his chair. Sally smiled petting her son hair calming him slightly

**Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."**

**"Oh. Right. Sorry."**

**"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."**

**"House call?"**

"And so it begins." Groaned Thalia.

**"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... ah, take a leave of absence."**

**I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.**

"What did he do to you?"

"I'm not tellling." Percy said smiling at his cousin

**"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.**

"No wonder you're full of yourself," Thaila said.

"I'm not full of myself," Percy said and Thalia and Nico snickered. "I'm not." He protested and they laughed even more.

**Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first.**

**We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."**

"But at a horrible price." Maria murmured as she glanced over at Sally

**"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"**

**"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.**

**"You **_**do **_**know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.**

"D, I'm pretty sure you and Chiron are the only two people at Camp who know how to play." Laughed Hermes.

**"I'm afraid not," I said.**

**"I'm afraid not, **_**sir**_**," he said.**

**"Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.**

"No worries Percy no one likes him up here either." Laughed Apollo. Dionysus just glared at his brother.

**"Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all **_**civilized **_**young men to know the rules."**

**"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.**

Annabeth sighed, "Chiron always the optimistic one."

**"Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Bruner "Chiron" why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?"**

**Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question."**

**The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.**

"_Poor Grover"_ Annabeth thought.

**Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, **_**I **_**was his star student. He expected **_**me **_**to have the right answer.**

**"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?'**

**"She said ..." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea.**

Posieden smiled at the gesture.

** "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."**

"Your a wonderful mother Ms. Jackson." Hera told her.

"Thank you Queen Hera." Sally told her.

**"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. **

Dionysus turned just as he was tackled off his throne by Poseidon who proceeded to bounce his face off the floor all the while yelling at him for having a lack of tact.

**Young man, are you bidding or not?"**

**"What?" I asked.**"You should not be gambling." Maria scowled slightly as she frowned at Dionysus.

**He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.**

**"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."**

**"Orientation film?" I asked.**

"You didn't get to see the orientation film?" Cried Nico "It was awesome."

"No I didn't see it then but one day I got bored and Chiron let me watch it instead of going to archery."

**"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know-" he pointed to the horn in the shoe box- "that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods- the forces you call the Greek gods- are very much alive."**

"And enter Percy's ability to be thick headed." Percy punched Nico in the arm when he finished but he grinned none the less.

**I stared at the others around the table.**

**I waited for somebody to yell, **_**Not! **_**But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.**

"Good, good." Zeus rolled his eyes at his son.

**"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"**

**"Eh? Oh, all right."**

**Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.**

"What wrong goat boy?" Nico asked looking over at Grover who just smiled at him sadly.

**"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as god."**

**"Well, now," Chiron said. "God- capital **_**G**_**, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."**

**"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about-"**

"What does Metaphysical mean?" Questioned Nico. As Athena and Annabeth opened their mouths to tell them Percy beat them to the punch. " Metaphysical: Of or relating to metaphysics" All the Gods and demi-gods looked at Percy like he had grown a second head.

"Ok….but what does metaphysics mean?" Just as Annabeth was opening her mouth Nico cut her off. "Never mind I don't care." Thalia and Athena still were looking at Percy like he had an extra head.

Finally Maria was able to spit out her question "How in the world do you know what that means?" Percy blushed but he managed to answer "It's impossible to spend a lot of time with Annabeth and not pick things up. I'm not hopeless you know." With that he started to laugh while Athena looked like she was about to breath fire and have smoke come out of her ears.

**"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."**

"SMALLER?" Thundered Zeus."

**"Smaller?"**

**"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."**

**"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."**

"I like how you didn't mention your dad Perce." Grinned Thalia.

**And there it was again distant thunder on a cloud less day.**

**"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."**

**"But they're stories," I said. "They're- myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."**

"But they are true." Sally and Maria said as they looked at there children

**"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson"-I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody- **

"He actually used someone's real name." Whispered Nico.

"Silence Nora. I did no such thing."

**"What will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals- they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come **_**so-o-o **_**far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."**

**I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if... he wasn't.**

"Wow Seaweed Brain." Laughed Annabeth.

**It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.**

**"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that **_**immortal **_**means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"**

**I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.**

**"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.**

"Why you took so long to respond, Percy?" Nico asked and Percy merrily shrugged his shoulders.

**"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that some day people would call **_**you **_**a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"**

"Chiron…"Growled Poseidon

**My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."**

**"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."**All the gods nodded in agreement.

**Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."**

**"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe.'"**

**He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.**

"Dionysus.."Growled Zeus.

**My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.**

**"Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."**

**Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.**

**"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"**

"Good my future self doesn't believe that either."

**More thunder.**

**Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.**

**Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."**

**"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.**

**"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me.**

"I do not."

**The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time- well, she really was pretty,**

"Ugh men." Scowled Artemis.

**and I couldn't stay away- the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair."**

**Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.**

Dionysus glared at Percy but said nothing.

**"And ..." I stammered, "your father is ..."**

_**"Di immortales, **_**Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."**

**I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.**

**"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."**

**Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"**

"Nope!"

"Silence Tabitha."

**"Y-yes, Mr. D."**

**"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"**

"As if." Screeched Aphrodite. To make her point well known Aphrodite threw a stiletto at Mr. D's head.

**"You're a god."**

**"Yes, child."**

**"A god. You."**

Mr. D looked like he wanted to strangle Percy while Thalia started to chuckle. "How are you still alive seaweed brain."

"Mad skill."

**He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.**

Dionysus started to nod his head like this didn't seem like a bad idea until he caught sight of Poseidon glaring at him and he stopped.

**"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.**

**"No. No, sir."**

**The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."**

"Really?"Exclaimed Mr. D and several of the other gods.

**"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."**

"Of bloody course." Mumbled Mr. D "Blasted centaur."

**I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher.**

"Oh he is Percy." Laughed Apollo.

**He got up, and Grover rose, too.**

**"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, **_**again, **_**about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."**

**Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."**

Grover paled at that and Annabeth gave his hand a squeeze.

**Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners."**

Thalia and Nico both snorted. "Like that will happen."

**He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.**

**"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.**

"You seem to care about Grover boy,"

"Of course Lady Artemis. He is my best friend."

**Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."**

**"Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"**

"Of course where did you think we lived in a cave?" Zues questioned.

**"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."**

**"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like ... in **_**America**_**?"**

**"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."**

**"The what?"**

**"Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. **

**The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know- or as I hope you know, since you passed my course- the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps- Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on- but the same forces, the same gods."**

"Ah Rome. Good times good times." Ares started to get a dreamy faraway look in his eyes.

**"And then they died."**

**"Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture.**

**People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States.**

"The statue of George Washington in Washington D.C. at the National Museum of American History which is based on a statue of Zeus sitting on his throne, the Statue of Athena in the replica of the Parthenon in Nashville Tennessee, and the statue of Poseidon down on Virginia Beach.

Smiled Percy. Again none of the gods knew what to do or say about that. A son of Poseidon showing interest in architecture? It simply wasn't possible. Annabeth was looking at Percy with wide eyes, she was excited that this cute boy liked architecture. Finally Nico broke the silence that was covering the throne room.

"How in Hades do you know any of that." Asked the stunned son of Hades.

"Oh well I decided to pay attention and look up some architecture things for fun…"As Percy trailed off Nico and Thalia understood it was either because of Annabeth that he knew that or it was to impress her.

Poseidon still sat in stunned silence. He couldn't stop looking at his son like he was crazy. Athena on the other hand was unable to string together a single rational thought other then _How _and _Why._

"Umm Grover could you please continue reading…" Pleaded Percy.

**Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not- and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either- America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."**

**It was all too much, especially the fact that **_**I **_**seemed to be included in Chiron's **_**we, **_**as if I were part of some club.**

**"Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?"**

"Wow dramatic much?" Laughed Thalia.

**Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.**

**"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven.**

"Best cabin there is." Yelled Hermes.

**There will be new friends to 'meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be smores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."**

**And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur.**

**And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.**

**I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. **

"Horesy!" Biaca squealed with delight.

**But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.**

"Well you took that better then Travis and Connor did when they first saw him do that." Laughed Annabeth.

"What do you mean?"Questioned Percy.

"Well when they saw Chiron transform they fainted and were out cold." Percy, Thalia, and Nico roared with laughter they had never heard that story before.

**"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."**

"Who will read next?" Questioned Grover.

"I will since we get to see my cabin." And with that Hermes was given the book.

"What ab'ut christmus." Bianca asked looking up at her mother.

Hades smiled at his daughter. "We shall celebrate." Zues said before standing up slightly motioning his brothers to follow him.

* * *

******A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this story. Sorry for the long wait, I kind of deleted the chapter then had to redo it (forgive me). Did you guys like the more comments were the enough or do you guys want more from the future people? Please Review  
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******Thank you to those who did review**


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